Imagine you've been at a party, maybe 4 or 5 hours' worth, maybe more, you've had a good time, laughed, eaten, drank, enjoyed/suffered moments of quiet reflection, engaged in deep a deep heartfelt conversation or two, made ridiculous small talk, laughed, eaten, and drank some more, and then suddenly? You have to go home. Immediately.
That's where we are, I think. It's a matter of timing probably more than anything. I stand by our original decision to stay for more than a week: a week would've been rushing things. But it's entirely possible that 10 days would've been perfect.
This is Day 11: we miss our apartment, cats, friends, kitchen, bed, creative utensils, etc. Mara's been away from home for 6 out of the last 9 weeks. I'm tired of trying to cook in a kitchen that's been whittled down to the absolute minimum.
We have eaten Really Poorly when trying to cook here in our lodgings. Like laughably so. Saturday night's dinner was: for me, vegetarian sausage and sauerkraut, abominable; Mara's was tuna noodle penne, except we forgot that we broke the can opener earlier in the day during the disgusting steak and kidney pie experiment, so she was left with celery, onions, and penne. And cheddar, I think, because it doesn't make sense to buy Parmesan here if you're not going to use it all, and we have to leave the fridge as empty as possible when we go.
The rest of the week we've subsisted on coffee, toast, eggs, bananas, mushy peas, carrots, peanut butter, and Pimm's Cups, it's a bit like college. The one exceptional thing I've cooked here has been something I call "duck egg over easy with maple syrup and coarse salt". Yum. And the mushy peas out of a can were OK.
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Tonight is dinner at the Harwood Arms, perhaps this will rejuvenate our asses.
Oh, and Happy Anniversary, Baby!
14 years13 years and counting, yo...
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7 comments:
Amsterdam misses you too. At least, this Amsterdam person does. I hope Harwood arms will lift your spirits!
also, this is exactly why I hate cooking in rented holiday homes. Unless you have a well equipped kitchen (which you never do) and a good supply of the basics (oils, spices, flours, cheeses, etc) it´s really hard to make anything that´s better than camping food.
Klary's right... Except I lived in London, and still had to eat like that. I guess grocery stores are better now, and you're a good cook, but still, there's something oppressive that creeps in. (We had a British roommate, which I think tipped the scale the wrong way.)
And don't those look like geese, not ducks, on the egg box? Confusing.
I personally can't blame it on English grocery stores, I cooked OK last time I was here, but I had a full fridge and weekly CSA box to work with...the house is much more like Klary's lamented/rented holiday home in its current state, starting from scratch.
and those totally look like geese. they can't be goose eggs, though, can they? i mean there's a semantic/metaphysical problem with that right up front I think.
Update: those are ducks.
More in a separate post.
Of course I overlooked the simple fact: you can just pop down the corner and get _duck eggs_! Man. And specially creamy and rich duck eggs from white ducks. A little rental-kitchen misery is worth it.
I won't lie to you...I got used to duck eggs for breakfast really fast, and yes they're in a regular old supermarket, Budgens.
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